My Plant-Based Family

Feeding My Family a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet, On a Budget

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Easy Mexican Rice and Bean Casserole

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This casserole is gluten-free, family friendly and made with pantry staples. It takes no time at all to toss together and you can let it cook mostly unattended. I only use one pan for easy cleanup.

Instant Pot Mexican Casserole

The first time I made it in a large casserole dish, the second time I just cooked it on the stove and served it on a bed of greens with some homemade pico de gallo. The oven version is the easier of the two because you just put it in the oven and leave it until the timer goes off.  Both ways are incredibly easy, someone just learning to cook can make these and impress everyone at their table.

The Instant Pot Mexican Casserole will amaze your family and impress your guests! This should be your go to plant-based recipe for your Instant Pot.

I love eating this with chips or in tortillas. Add a little avocado or your favorite salsa to spice it up.

Mexican Casserole

Ingredients

  • 1 cup uncooked brown rice
  • 2 1/2 cups water (3 cups for casserole version)
  • 1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 2 cups cooked beans (or 1 can drained beans) I’ve used pinto and black beans.
  • 1 cup corn (optional)

Do

For Casserole Version

  1. Preheat oven to 350°
  2. Add all ingredients to a 9×15 casserole dish and stir gently.
  3. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until rice is tender.

For Stove Top Version

  1. Add all ingredients except beans to a pan (I use a skillet) and cover cooking over medium heat.
  2. Stir occasionally, add more water if necessary.
  3. Rice should be nice and soft after 45 minutes, add the beans and corn if using then stir to mix.
  4. Heat until everything is warm.

Serve

This is an easy potluck meal. You could easily double the beans too. We loved it on a bed of greens with a bit of guacamole and homemade pico or salsa. If you’re on the go throw it in a tortilla. I’ll be having leftovers wrapped up in romaine leaves.

I love how versatile (and delicious) this is; it can easily be made with pantry staples when you have no fresh ingredients in the house.

UPDATE: I now have a Crock-Pot version that is even tastier! Check it out HERE if you love good food! Or if you have an Instant Pot try this version!

The Instant Pot Mexican Casserole will amaze your family and impress your guests! This should be your go to plant-based recipe for your Instant Pot.

Check out my Pico de Gallo for a easy and delicious topping!

Meal Plan Monday: Eat to Live

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I had a nice week off to spend with my family and friends and I hope you did too. During Thanksgiving weekend I read Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman. My husband had read/listened to it multiple times and had been trying to incorporate Dr. Fuhrman’s plan for a while. I’m sure it was difficult for him since I had not yet read the book.

Now that I have read the book I’ll be trying to incorporate it into our diet. I’m sure I wont do it perfectly, especially since we have little kids who need to eat a little differently but I can strive toward it. 🙂

If you haven’t read Eat to Live I will say that it is a must read, but you may want to spread it out and not read it all in one weekend because it is a lot to take in. I’ll share more about what I learned another day.

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be a combination of oatmeal, Breakfast Quinoa, fruit, and smoothies. Today’s oatmeal contained oats, chia seeds, ground flax, and cranberries.

Lunches should be a big salad but I usually prefer them stuffed in a pita or leftover soup. My soups and salads will be made up of a variety of beans, celery, carrots, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. My kids will eat plenty of PB and almond butter sandwiches.

Snacks will be veggies and hummus, muffins and yogurt parfaits for the boys, smoothies, and fruit with almond butter.

Dinner will be big salads and hearty soups. I also hope to remake and post the recipe for an incredible Mexican Casserole I made a few weeks ago. It was easy and delicious. I’m not a big cauliflower fan but I’m thinking of trying cauliflower rice I’ve seen on numerous blogs. I’m also craving the flavors in my Enchilada and Taco Soups and I have a big fat avocado that is slowly ripening. I may pair it with Spicy Black Bean Soup.

Most of the meals this week will be quick since they use fresh veggies but I need to make another batch of my Veggie Broth Mix. I got dried mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes to add to the mix like Somer at Vedged Out recommended in the comments. She had made a version and added them with great results. Then Sarah at Gazing In made her version and I just had to expand my base mix and add the mushrooms and tomatoes.

I also plan to make some quinoa this week for a little whole grain variety.

Have you read Eat to Live? If so, do you follow it?

November Healthy Cravings Recap: A Thanksgiving Feast

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Last week I had a great time with the group of ladies who come to my home for Healthy Cravings. If you’re new here and not sure what I’m talking about Healthy Cravings is a monthly meeting I host to help ladies learn and hopefully transition to a plant-based diet.

My sweet friend Rene came to share her story. She has been eating a plant-based diet for about 4 months and loves it. She told the group that she had always been a dieter but the other diets weren’t sustainable. Eating a plant-based diet is a life-style change for Rene and her husband. After sharing her story she was gracious enough to answer questions for the group. Thank you Rene!

This month’s theme was Thanksgiving foods. I’d been looking for ideas for quite a while and organizing them on Pinterest. Every dish was vegan and gluten-free. unfortunately I didn’t get great pictures since it was already dark but I’ll be remaking many of these dishes over the next two weeks.

These Mashed Potatoes were the most popular dish of the evening. Everyone loved them. They need no accompaniment but I made the Happy Herbivore’s Thanksgiving Gravy that you can find by clicking here along with all of Linsday’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes.

I also made the Sweet Potato Casserole that I shared yesterday. Everyone loved it too and several of the ladies have been patiently awaiting this recipe.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving Dinner has always been the Corn Bread Dressing. I created my own vegan and gluten-free recipe based on my Memaw’s recipe (that is full of eggs and butter). It tasted great when I made it in the morning, unfortunately it dried out through the re-heating process. I’ll continue to tweak this and share the recipe soon.

I made two recipes from Susan at Fat-Free Vegan. First was her Impossible Vegan Pumpkin Pie. It is really easy to make but came out more like a pumpkin mousse that a pie, I even made it the day before like she recommends. Next time I’ll likely cut back on some of the spices because it was a little too “spicy” for us.

Second was The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole. I made this last year also and it is really good. So much better and better for you that my old recipe that used canned green beans, cans of cream of mushroom soup and french fried onions. I’ll admit I love those french fried onions but they contain wheat so I made my own gluten-free topping featuring GF bread crumbs, onions, and broth made from my broth mix.

Lastly I made Good Clean Food’s Cranberry Maple Compote. Forget your old, canned cranberry sauce this Cranberry Maple Compote is amazing. I have never liked cranberry sauce until now. I soooo wanted to pour this in a flaky crust and scoop some almond milk ice cream on top. I’m getting excited just thinking about it.

Our next Healthy Cravings group isn’t meeting until January but the food will focus on plant-based party and Super Bowl food. Oh yeah, come hungry.

Thanksgiving is just over a week away here in the U.S. so I’ll be enjoying these delicious foods at least once more this year. We are getting together with two other families who have really become family to us. I’m so thankful for them and I’m looking forward to sharing this special meal with them.

Light and Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

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Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegan and Thanksgiving Dinner Worthy

I’ve made Mashed Potatoes for years but for some reason with Thanksgiving on the horizon I started to wonder if we would be able to enjoy a “traditional” mashed potatoes sans butter and milk. I’ve made a Dirty Mashed Potatoes that were delicious but that isn’t the same as Thanksgiving’s creamy version that I was longing for.

Fear Not! I got this!

Thanksgiving Worthy Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 4 large potatoes
  • 2 tsp salt
  • pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or rice milk)
  • 2 tsp nutritional yeast

Do

  1. Scrub, peel, and cut potatoes into large chunks.
  2. Cover with water and bring to a boil.
  3. Cook until potatoes very are soft.
  4. Drain potatoes and mash with a potato masher.
  5. Add salt and pepper, nutritional yeast and about half of the milk.
  6. Continue to mash or (whip) until everything is mixed, add more plant milk as needed.
  7. Taste and add more salt or nutritional yeast as necessary to get the flavor just right. (Depending on the size of your potatoes this might not be enough seasoning)

Serve

These potatoes are amazing. I took them to a potluck, eaten them alone and they are soon to be put to good use on a Vegan Shepherd’s Pie. They are perfect for Thanksgiving, I can hardly wait to top them with Happy Herbivore’s Thanksgiving gravy. Add a bit of rice milk when re-heating these. You will probably want to hide them as well, I chose the veggie drawer, no one suspected a thing. 🙂

Meal Plan Monday: No Nonsense in November

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I really enjoyed October’s Vegan Month of Food, a.k.a Vegan MoFo but I admit I got a bit burned out. I wasn’t eating as well as I should to feel great. There were many days that time with my family took a back seat so I could continue blogging and fulfill my commitment of 20 posts last month. I finally came to my senses and realized time with my family was way more important than pounding out another recipe.

The Virtual Vegan Potluck was another fun event. I brought Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins. They were a virtual hit; I also took them to several events where they were adored! To check out other recipes visit Vegan Bloggers Unite and make your way through appetizers, beverages, breads, salads, sides, soups, main dishes and finally desserts.

During the month’s of November and December I hope to stay family focused. I also want to focus on nourishing our bodies, not just filling them up. This takes planning; it will not happen without effort. I will still be blogging and sharing recipes so I don’t think you’ll have time to miss me. I also have my last Healthy Cravings of the year this week.

No Nonsense Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, breakfast quinoa, toast with nut butter and fruit and cereal on busy days. We also have leftover whole wheat and gluten-free pancakes.

Lunch is usually leftovers or a nice soup. Sometimes I’ll make a quick pasta for my kids or an easy almond butter sandwich.

Snacks are usually fruit or sometimes a parfait with chia “sprinkles” and walnuts. My little guys love these parfait’s. They also love green smoothies and will remain completely silent until they have consumed the whole thing… marvelous!

Dinner requires a bit more effort. I’m also prepping for Healthy Cravings so I’ll be cooking all week for that. I’m hoping to incorporate the same ingredients to make it a bit easier on me and my budget. This week I’m planning to make a Vegan Shepard’s Pie, attempt a new Mexican inspired casserole (hopefully a 1 dish meal), maybe a veggie soup and of course a full Thanksgiving Spread for Thursday’s Healthy Cravings. You can follow me on Pinterest to see what other idea’s I’m kicking around.

If you are like me and continually on a quest for more recipes (or at lease recipe inspiration) make sure you check out the Virtual Vegan Potluck you can even vote for your favorite recipe for each course by sending a message to Annie. You don’t even have to vote for me (unless you really want too) but please vote. Check out those details here.

Nutty Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

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Sometimes I get stuck in a breakfast rut. As the seasons change I find myself craving new flavors and textures. Oatmeal is the perfect vehicle to test out my newest ideas whether I add fresh fruit and berries or dried fruit with seed and nuts.

This morning my thoughts drifted back to my childhood and the single serving packets of Apple Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal I remember eating. I’m sure that oatmeal was better than the Count Chocula I ate regularly, but they were both full of sugar and devoid of nutrients.

Nutty Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (An Unrecipe)

Ingredients (amounts will vary depending on your number of servings)

  • Rolled Oats
  • water
  • 1-2 apples, diced
  • cinnamon
  • sweetener (I used maple syrup)
  • walnuts (optional)
  • ground flax (optional)
  • almond slivers (optional)

Do

  1. Bring water and diced apples to boil. Two cups of water for every 1 cup of oats is a general rule.
  2. Add oats and stir regularly.
  3. Once oatmeal is done, add cinnamon and sweetener of your choice.

Serve

I like wait until the oatmeal is put in bowls to add the optional add-ins. Add a side of fruit to round out the meal is always a good idea. 🙂 My kids loved this by the way and I’m willing to bet yours will too. You can also try this with quinoa or brown rice to mix things up a bit.

On a side note, Vegan Month of Food, Vegan MoFo is still under way. I am a few post behind but I’m cutting my self some slack because I’ve been super busy. I had hoped to catch up over the weekend but made the executive decision that my sanity is more important than catching up. 🙂